It is estimated that nearly thirty million Americans suffer from some sort of sleep disorder. Frequently, the sleep disorder has a major impact upon the quality of life, manifesting itself in work absenteeism, reduction in the quality of work, injury on the job, marital stress, drug dependency, and various psychological disorders. The financial impact upon American business is staggering and is estimated to be greater than ten billion dollars annually.
One of the more common major sleep disorders is obstructive sleep apnea. In this affliction, there is episodic closure of the airway, resulting in the obstruction of breathing. Redundancy of mucous membranes, over-relaxation of pharyngeal muscles, and/or poor anatomical positioning of the head and neck appear to account for this phenomenon to varying degrees. When the airway is completely obstructed, the individual stops breathing for a period of time ranging from several seconds to several minutes. The struggle to breath becomes so frantic that the individual begins to wake up. This arousal from deep sleep results in a temporary reversal of the underlying sleep process so that the individual may take several gasping breaths before falling back into deeper sleep. This cycle may be repeated numerous times a night.
Under conditions where airway obstruction is incomplete, there is some passage of air, resulting in an unpleasant sound known as snoring created by the vibration of the relaxed mucous membranes. While the quality of sleep of snoring individuals may not be greatly affected, the quality of sleep of nearby individuals may be significantly and adversely affected. Moreover, a sizable number of people who snore do suffer from daytime somnolence or exhaustion, an indication of poor sleep quality.
There have been numerous attempts to eliminate or reduce obstructive sleep apnea or snoring through various pillow designs, with mixed results. One of the more successful approaches has been to incorporate a pillow feature which encourages the individual to extend the neck so that the cross-sectional area of the airway is increased. Features which encourage such anatomical positioning are described in various U.S. Patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,850,067; 5,014,377; and 5,123,132. Many of the pillow designs for elimination or reduction of obstructive sleep apnea or snoring employ tradeoffs between accomplishing this objective and comfort, using discomfort techniques to encourage the user to sleep in one position as opposed to another. Examples of these designs include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,536,905 and 4,748,702. Still others restrict the movement of the user during sleep. Examples of these designs include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,118,813 and 4,349,925. Various types of pillows have also been designed for orthopedic cervical support. These include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,574,397; 4,424,599; 4,494,261; 4,550,458; 5,016,303; and 5,038,432.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a pillow structure that reduces the frequency and severity of obstructive sleep apnea or snoring, thereby improving the quality of sleep of the user and nearby individuals.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a pillow structure that reduces the frequency and severity of obstructive sleep apnea or snoring without resorting to physical discomfort or restricting user mobility.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pillow structure that maximizes the cross-sectional area of the user's airway passage at the level of the oropharynx when the user is in a supine position, yet permitting the user to easily roll into the lateral decubitus position with the lateral side of the user's head abutting lateral side portions of the pillow.
It is yet another object of the present invention to reduce the potential for neck strain by providing for a pillow structure that places the cervical and thoracic spine of the user in substantially coextensive alignment in the supine and lateral decubitus positions and throughout the rolling movement between these positions.
Other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description and appended drawings wherein there is shown and described a preferred embodiment of the present invention.